The Wayfinders

his failed attempt at apotheosis

The immediate surroundings waver and fade, replaced by a bird’s-eye view of the city of Kuluth-Mar at its height. The streets are empty, as thousands of citizens have gathered in a mass in the central plaza surrounding the ziggurat.

A foul energy wells from the spire at the center of the city, sweeping outward and felling the living as it passes. For each creature that falls, you feel a silent but potent sense of wrongness, as some indescribable part of the creature is drawn back towards the spire to be absorbed by the strange black monolith of stone balanced at its peak.

As the energy builds around the peak, a shimmering image of a colossal humanoid figure, its body composed of a million writhing worms, takes form around the spire, its arms raised in triumph. Yet in another moment, that triumphant pose seems to change to one of rage, and a soul-wrenching cry of fury tears from the undulant face. The image shrinks, pulled into the stone monolith at the spire’s peak, imploding with a horrific wet burst. In an instant, the city is quiet again. Yet as the vision fades, the first signs of un-life spread throughout thousands of dead bodies strewn around the base of the ziggurat as bodies now festering with green worms rise from death.

You discerned the following:
-The wash of energy that was drawn from the crowd was the souls of Kyuss’ followers.
-The spire drew upon their lives and faith in a way that reverses the channeling of divine power from a deity.
-The soul energy was being used to breach the bindings of Katashka and merge his power with Kyuss.
-The enormous figure that appeared was Kyuss, yet somehow he was not able to control his apotheosis and became trapped in the monolith.